Whale dies near beach

Wildlife officials study a North Atlantic right whale that was towed to Butler Beach on Thursday, after it was found floating dead in the ocean on Wednesday. Photos by DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com

A 2-year-old North Atlantic right whale the size of a school bus lay motionless on the Butler Beach sand near Mary Street on Thursday while local residents and broadcast crews snapped photos and gawked at the dead and putrid-smelling animal stretched out before them.

Biologists and other local marine officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission towed in the 30-foot-long, 15,000-pound female right whale that was found dead and floating in the water eight nautical miles from the shores of St. Augustine on Wednesday night, said Tom Pitchford, a wildlife biologist with the FWC.

The windy, chilly and overcast weather did not deter local residents from hiking to the beach to photograph the large whale Thursday morning. Many, some with their dogs in tow, gathered around yellow police caution tape to see the whale up close for themselves.

FWC and NOAA officials helped untangle the same whale from rope and other debris three other times since Dec. 25, Pitchford said. Marine officials were able to remove most of the ropes and attach a satellite device to the whale to track her, he said.

"It was Christmas day when we were doing a routine aerial check by helicopter," Pitchford said. "That's when we first saw her."

The last time officials found the whale was on Jan. 15, and she was in bad condition, said Karrie Carnes, communications coordinator for NOAA. Officials were able to sedate the whale while she was still at sea and remove most of the ropes, Carnes said.

"This was actually only the second time ever that anyone was ever able to sedate a free swimming whale in the ocean," Carnes said. "We sedated the animal to relax her while we removed the ropes that were tangled in her mouth and around her flippers."

However, more rope was found entangled on the whale's carcass two days ago when officials in a helicopter spotted her adrift, Pitchford said.

It took crews a little more than an hour to tow the dead whale into shore Wednesday night, Pitchford said. Officials returned to the beach Thursday morning to begin their investigation around 7 a.m. It took nearly all day Thursday for crews to complete the necropsy.

Officials with the NOAA, FWC, the Georgia Aquarium, University of Florida, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Georgia Department of Natural resources and the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office helped perform the necropsy.

"The amount of support you see out here today is amazing," Pitchford said. "There are a lot of people from this county that really care about the endangered right whales."

Yellow police caution tape blocked off a large portion of the beach where construction machines, including cranes, which helped move the whale.

The whale's battered body was marked with raw spots and cuts along its back and near its fins. Officials studied the remains before dissecting the whale's body completely.

The skeletal remains of the whale will be donated to a museum or aquarium; other remains will be taken back to a laboratory for testing, Carnes said. The rest of the carcass will be buried on the beach near the Mary Street ramp where the animal was towed in.

ABOUT THE RIGHT WHALE:

The right whale is a large, bulky baleen whale of unusual appearance. Its upper and lower jaws are highly curved, allowing its long baleen plates to be enclosed while swimming. Its rostrum (upper jaw) is narrow and is often covered by "callosities," hardened patches of skin that occur around the face.

Right whales are black all over except for the belly, where there is often a white patch. Wounds and scars may appear bright orange because they become infested with whale lice, or cyamids. The callosities, which are also found near the blowholes, above the eyes, and on the chin and upper lip, are black or gray but appear white because of cyamid coverage.

Right whales are found worldwide but in very small numbers. Like most baleen whales, they are seasonally migratory. They inhabit colder waters for feeding, then migrate to warmer waters for breeding and calving. Although they may move far out to sea during their feeding seasons, right whales give birth in coastal areas. Interestingly, many of the females do not return to these coastal breeding areas every year, but visit the area only in calving years. Where they go in other years remains a mystery.

The right whale is extremely endangered, even after years of protected status. Best population estimates are 300 to 350 in the North Atlantic, perhaps fewer than 100 in the eastern North Pacific and an unknown (but small) number in the western North Pacific, and 3,000-4,000 in the Southern Hemisphere. Full protection was granted in 1931, but despite over 50 years of protection, recovery has been questionable. Only in the past 15 years is there evidence of a population recovery in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is still not known if the right whale will survive at all in the Northern Hemisphere.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for
following agreed-upon rules of civility. Posts and
comments do not reflect the views of this site. Posts and comments are
automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some
comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules,
click the "Flag as offensive" link below the comment.

Hope they sell some of those remains and get like a half million for all those helicopter flights; sedation; rope removal; etc. Maybe the whale was trying to commit suicide you know with the rope just couldn't find a tree out there. Jeeze Louise how about feeding some of the hungry kids in THIS Nation or some of the hungry construction workers? What a waste of money.

Why feed starving kids? It helps keep the population down and rids the world of being overran by ignorant peeps like yourself, oldman. Hungry construction workers? In times like this, its called... further your education and find another job.

This animal is on the endangered species list and all necessary steps should be taken to protect it. Did you read the numbers? There are very few right whales and many starving kids and construction workers, I say save the animals, to hell with humans.